Last week, the MacIntyre Dementia Project was fortunate to take part in and present at the Dementia Action Alliance (DAA) Dementia and Learning Disabilities Roundtable.
As part of its campaign this year, the DAA is focusing on improving care and support for people affected by dementia who come from seldom heard groups: prisons, LGBT, and learning disabilities. Through roundtables, each topic will be explored and areas where progress is needed will be identified and recommendations produced.
Key figures from the National Care Forum, the Association for Real Change, RCN and the Mental Health Foundation, to name but a few, joined the roundtable to share their views and offer insight.
The aim of the Dementia and Learning Disabilities Roundtable was to:
Develop a set of key messages outlining the issues relating to dementia and learning disabilities
Capture what good practice looks like and how to disseminate it across key stakeholders in the sector
Develop an overarching call to action designed to create system-wide change
The MacIntyre Dementia Project team presented three case studies, representing the people supported by MacIntyre who have a learning disability and dementia, and making sure their voices and stories were heard. Each case study focused on an individual and their life story: including before their diagnosis, their diagnosis and what has happened since their diagnosis. The case studies generated powerful discussion amongst those in attendance and will be freely available on our website, as well as the DAA website.
Sarah Ormston, Dementia Project Manager, said:
“The discussions generated at the roundtable have really highlighted the importance of the work we all need to do surrounding learning disability and dementia. It was great to have so many key industry figures join us; together we have the ability to make such a positive impact. We were thrilled to share our examples of best practice and to have such good feedback on the work we are doing. We look forward to continuing to work with the DAA on the release of the report about seldom heard groups in September.”
If you missed it, you can catch up by watching the recording of the roundtable. For more information, please email [javascript protected email address].